In the past three years, shareholders of Bank of Marin Bancorp (NASDAQ:BMRC) have seen a loss on their investment. However, what is unusual is that EPS growth has been positive, suggesting that the share price has diverged from fundamentals. The AGM coming up on the 11 May 2021 could be an opportunity for shareholders to bring these concerns to the board's attention. They could also influence management through voting on resolutions such as executive remuneration. We think shareholders might be reluctant to increase compensation for the CEO at the moment, according to our analysis below.

View our latest analysis for Bank of Marin Bancorp

Comparing Bank of Marin Bancorp's CEO Compensation With the industry

According to our data, Bank of Marin Bancorp has a market capitalization of US$471m, and paid its CEO total annual compensation worth US$1.1m over the year to December 2020. That's a slight decrease of 3.2% on the prior year. We think total compensation is more important but our data shows that the CEO salary is lower, at US$489k.

For comparison, other companies in the same industry with market capitalizations ranging between US$200m and US$800m had a median total CEO compensation of US$1.1m. This suggests that Bank of Marin Bancorp remunerates its CEO largely in line with the industry average. Moreover, Russ Colombo also holds US$2.7m worth of Bank of Marin Bancorp stock directly under their own name, which reveals to us that they have a significant personal stake in the company.

On an industry level, roughly 43% of total compensation represents salary and 57% is other remuneration. Bank of Marin Bancorp is largely mirroring the industry average when it comes to the share a salary enjoys in overall compensation. If non-salary compensation dominates total pay, it's an indicator that the executive's salary is tied to company performance.

Bank of Marin Bancorp's Growth

Over the past three years, Bank of Marin Bancorp has seen its earnings per share (EPS) grow by 19% per year. The trailing twelve months of revenue was pretty much the same as the prior period.

Overall this is a positive result for shareholders, showing that the company has improved in recent years. While it would be good to see revenue growth, profits matter more in the end. Moving away from current form for a second, it could be important to check this free visual depiction of what analysts expect for the future.

Has Bank of Marin Bancorp Been A Good Investment?

Since shareholders would have lost about 1.7% over three years, some Bank of Marin Bancorp investors would surely be feeling negative emotions. Therefore, it might be upsetting for shareholders if the CEO were paid generously.

In Summary...

Despite the growth in its earnings, the share price decline in the past three years is certainly concerning. A huge lag in share price growth when earnings have grown may indicate there could be other issues that are affecting the company at the moment that the market is focused on. Shareholders would probably be keen to find out what are the other factors could be weighing down the stock. At the upcoming AGM, shareholders will get the opportunity to discuss any issues with the board, including those related to CEO remuneration and assess if the board's plan will likely improve performance in the future.

Shareholders may want to check for free if Bank of Marin Bancorp insiders are buying or selling shares.

Arguably, business quality is much more important than CEO compensation levels. So check out this free list of interesting companies that have HIGH return on equity and low debt.

This article by Simply Wall St is general in nature. It does not constitute a recommendation to buy or sell any stock, and does not take account of your objectives, or your financial situation. We aim to bring you long-term focused analysis driven by fundamental data. Note that our analysis may not factor in the latest price-sensitive company announcements or qualitative material. Simply Wall St has no position in any stocks mentioned.

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